Hi teachers, a few days ago I received a e-mail from Tracy at dreambox.com about teachers tools.

"Hello my name is Tracy Beach and I represent Dreambox Learning (http://www.dreambox.com).
DreamBox offers engaging kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade math games that provide an in-depth math curriculum and completely individualized learning. Our online math games are full of math adventures — DreamBox is serious learning that’s seriously fun!
Not only does Dreambox Learning care about kids education we also care about those who educate them. Dreambox developed many great Teachers Tools (http://www.dreambox.com/teachertools) so teachers and educators a like can use free of charge."

I wanted to share a new educational resource from the Midwest Dairy Council – it is a curriculum of educational tools designed to help students better understand the importance of healthy snacking from both a health and economic perspective.

This curriculum includes downloadable “Make Change” lesson plans, appropriate for any lessons focusing on health, family and consumer science (FACS), or general classroom discussion. The lesson plans and accompanying tools are located inside the “Educator’s Resource Center” at http://dairymakessense.com/educator/.

Here, you’ll find posters, a PowerPoint presentation, lesson plans and interactive “cow-culator” activity, hand-outs, charts, recipes, and nutrition guides, all available free of charge (and all of these resources have been teacher-reviewed.)

Educators can also apply for a $500 school grant from Midwest Dairy Council to help empower students to take action for their health and improve their school environment. Fifteen $500 grants will be distributed. The grants are only available to schools in the Midwest Dairy region, which includes IA, ND, SD, MN, IL, MO, AR, KS, and eastern OK.

You can get in on all the Halloween fun and continue the fast-growing tradition of Boo-ing with Carson-Dellosa’s printer friendly “You’ve Been Boo’d” Ghost PDF to send to teachers at your school. It’s totally fun and best of all, it’s free! Just log on to www.carsondellosa.com/boo or Log Into to your Facebook Home Page and follow this link to Carson-Dellosa at http://tinyurl.com/ykmft9o to send the “You’ve Been Boo’d” app.

Boo-ing is a fun way to spread the Halloween spirit. Carson-Dellosa has created a special “You’ve Been Boo’d!” Ghost for teachers so they can have their own secret Halloween fun!

HOW TO BOO:
It’s a fun little game that’s easy to do. You could make someone’s day and share a treat, too!

1. Log on to www.carsondellosa.com/boo and print out two copies of the “You’ve Been Boo’d!” Ghost PDF or Log Into your Facebook Home Page and follow this link to Carson-Dellosa at http://tinyurl.com/ykmft9o to send Carson-Dellosa’s “You’ve Been Boo’d” app.
2. Prepare two Halloween goodie bags filled with treats.
3. Secretly leave the “You’ve Been Boo’d” Ghost and a bag of treats for two teachers in your school.
4. Pass this posting on to your teacher friends at other schools.
The “You’ve Been Boo’d Ghost” PDF and Facebook app will be available through October 31st.

Attention Kindergarten Teachers: Pilot Reading Program from LeapFrog!

LeapFrog is excited to introduce the Tag Kindergarten Program, in which we partner with teachers to help them inspire kids' love of reading. In this pilot program, LeapFrog provides teachers the Tag School Reading System, which features a pen-like tool that interacts with real books to give students a fun, multisensory and increasingly independent reading experience. Participating teachers receive Tag School Readers and a library of books to supplement their classroom instruction, plus program and technical support--the retail value of which would amount to at least $3,200. In return, we ask that teachers integrate Tag and Tag content into their classroom curriculum and provide feedback on children's use of Tag and their progress. LeapFrog tools have been in hundreds of thousands of classrooms, and we are always searching for better ways to meet the needs of students and teachers. At LeapFrog, we believe that a child who loves to learn ... will learn. And learning to read is where that love begins.

Teachers interested in participating should fill out the short application form at http://www.formspring.com/forms/LeapFrog-TagKProgram by November 11. LeapFrog will notify teachers beginning in mid-November if they are chosen to participate. Space in the pilot program is limited, and LeapFrog is seeking kindergarten teachers who are motivated to use new tools to improve the reading skills of their students.

Englewood, Co – StudentPublishing.com has announced free publishing programs for schools through an online book making application. Students can author and illustrate an entire storybook or contribute a page to a classbook. In the storybook program, each student receives a free paperback in return for making extras available to their family.  With the classbook program, each class receives a free hardback book for making copies available to student families. Only 10 or more students in any grade from k-8 are required.

The online book tool is unique in that no program needs to be downloaded or installed. That can be quite useful in most schools given that network security has locked out or limited that capability. It also allows students to work on their project from any computer with an Internet connection, including the one at home.

The tool itself is geared especially to elementary aged students who login directly to their own book or to their page within a classbook. A good set of drawing tools are provided along with hundreds of paint-able backgrounds and sticker outlines. These outlines facilitate the making of an attractive illustration, while still reflecting each student’s creativity through their placement and coloring. Students can also upload photos and hand drawn illustrations, if they prefer.

StudentPublishing.com asserts that these publishing projects have a tremendous impact on students and their parents. In fact, their site includes testimonials from teachers as to not just the quality of the finished books, but the tremendous incentive and motivation they give to students. Five year customer Angie Kelley said, "Writing stories can be hard for some students, but when I tell them, ‘Your work will be published in a book,’ they get so excited and really engage in the process! As a teacher, you know you’ve connected with students when they come to class the first day hoping to write and publish stories." Apparently other teachers agree. The company just won the Learning^â Magazine 2010 Teachers’ Choice^SM Award for the mail-in version of the Storybook program which, though not free, does include professional typesetting of the students’ stories at no extra charge.

The company is a division of Creations by You®, makers of the tremendously successful and highly acclaimed retail product, IlluStory® - Write and illustrate your own book. The 17 year old kit has won 9 educational product awards and is still a top seller at retailers such as Amazon, Target and Barnes & Noble to name a few.

Additional Information:

For more information on programs please visit www.StudentPublishing.com.